Big “gadget” blogs depend on maintaining very friendly
relationships with the companies whose products they cover so they
can continue to get exclusives, interviews, press badges to
events, and early access to products.

My theory is that it’s not about access; it’s about not pissing off the vocal anti-Apple contingent of their readerships. Those who claim to truly believe the iPhone is just a black rectangle with round corners. That all these new PC laptops and desktops (and keyboards, and mice, and trackpads) look alike not because they’re all aping Apple’s designs, but simply because these are the natural ways for these things to have evolved, and maybe Apple sort of kind of arguably got there first in a few instances, that’s all. Apple didn’t invent aluminum or glass.